Area Startup Raises $2.1 Million For Some Damn Thing It Won’t Talk About

An exciting new startup* is launching soon, unveiling technology that it promises will change the way that all content is distributed and consumed to all sorts of mobile- and Internet-connected devices. And to do that, it’s raised $2.1 million in seed funding from Roger McNamee and Mike Maples’ Floodgate Fund.

So what is the product that will change the content world forever? “We’re not talking about the product today,” the founder told me. “We’ll be announcing the product launch later this summer.” Nevertheless, he assured me that when the company is ready to launch its product, I will be the first to know.**

The startup in question, which was founded by a team of veterans from the wireless industry, has been operating in stealth mode since 2011, and figured why not wait just a little longer to let people know what it’s working on.

Undeterred, I pressed on. What does this product actually do? “Our premise is is to allow anyone to watch anything, anytime, anywhere,” he told me, apparently oblivious to the fact that if it only took $2.1 million to do that, this problem would have been solved years — nay, decades — ago.

I did get one nugget of help from the founder: The company’s product has something to do with something called Hypernet. What’s that? It’s a theoretical framework dreamed up by McNamee and Maples “that combines the web plus cellular plus WiFi.” It also includes the Hyperweb, which provides “new user experiences enabled by billions of nodes and millions of clouds.” That is, according to the Hypernet blog at rogerandmike.com.

I’m sure all will be revealed soon. In the meantime, congrats on the funding, ultra-stealthy stealth startup!

UPDATE: So this is what all the fuss is about. The product is a wireless USB dongle that hooks into your TV and lets you stream video to it from your laptop or mobile device. Fun.